Equip Blog

It’s been a prairie farmer’s ritual that happens every June, heading to Evraz Place to take in Canada’s Farm Progress Show. And for us farm equipment writers, it’s more than that. It’s where we go to see what the Canadian short-line manufacturers have been up to in their R&D shops, so we can fill up […] Read more

Early on in the Trump Administration’s initial months, manufacturer associations seemed happy to work with some of the president’s “America first” policies. Getting excited about rebuilding U.S. infrastructure, like roads and bridges, was one of those areas they saw as good for all, including themselves. It’s hard to argue with the value of that aspect […] Read more

For anyone keeping tabs on the NAFTA negotiations and all the craziness surrounding North American trade this past week, I think there’s a real desire to stack sandbags high around the house and hunker down until sanity—or some semblance of it—once again dominates in international affairs. By the end of last week the U.S. Administration […] Read more

A few months ago I was sitting in a classroom discussing the value of exam scores. One of the questions posed was, is it important for students, either those in adult learning situations or kids in school, to focus on getting good grades, or is there a better way to evaluate progress? The opinions, as […] Read more

John Deere, the brand that owns the lion’s share of the farm equipment business in North America, announced recently it had a pretty good start to 2018. In fact, it estimates its net sales and revenue for the year will jump by a whopping 26 percent over last year. Whether that prediction holds may soon […] Read more

This week I was sitting in the cab of a 10-year-old old Class 8 truck equipped with an auto-shift transmission. After attempting to back up the truck and finesse it into position, the person behind the wheel commented that particular automatic transmission made the kind of slow manoeuvre he was attempting difficult. The transmission just […] Read more

In my blog last week, I talked about an ag equipment-related competition taking place in Finland amid the snow and cold weather. AGCO’s Valta tractor brand held the event, which brought together drivers from all over Europe to try their hand at, well, racing tractors on ice. And as I mentioned, I think we Canadians […] Read more

This year, according to Environment Canada, Edmonton has set a record for the longest continuous stretch of days with the temperature falling below freezing, almost 170 of them. And this week the forecast calls for more snow and winter-like weather there. Most of the country has seen these crazy low temperatures for months on end, […] Read more